Adagio Teas: Sleeping Dragon, first taste. Me and tea.

I haven't written a post in a long LONG time, but I'm awake, it's late... I'm caffeinated. Eh. But actually I'm not as caffeinated as I was a few nights ago. I'm feeling extra rambling tonight.

Tonight was the first time I tried Sleeping Dragon, a green tea that Adagio describes as a soft gunpowder taste. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean.

I can tell you that as of right now I don't consider myself experienced the in the world of fancy teas. Growing up we had certain types of tea always stocked in the cabinet, but my parents were fairly strict about it. My Mom drank tea, my Dad drank coffee. When you had tea though, you NEVER EVER put other things in it, if you wanted milk or sugar it was coffee. And you know the coffee that that gave us as kids was more like 80% milk, 20% instant coffee. Even 20% seems a little high. Did you forget I'm a rambler? Never expect my posts to be always to the point. Sorry about that. The original point of this paragraph is that I'm not a very experienced tea drinker. Not like my friends that drink tea like water. *I* can still get caffeinated off of tea.

Tea in our house was also made what I've recently learned to be called 'grandpa style'. Basically a bunch of tea leaves inside a large thermos and refilled with more hot water throughout the day. So the day starts out with fairly strong tea, and ends with a quite weak tea, depending on how many times you refilled the pot. (Admittedly I still brew like this alot, except not owning a large thermos, in a tea pot.) I'm a multi-infusion tea drinker. One use tea bags to be was a foreign concept when I first discovered that people actually and USUALLY throw out a tea bag after one infusion. Soo weird. You know that tea changes flavor with pretty much every infusion?  Admittedly now in adulthood I can understand why most people toss the teabag after just one infusion, especially supermarket tea bags, most are only good for one infusion anyway. This paragraph served no purpose other then to tell you I like to infuse things multiple times.

Tonight was also the first time I got to play with my new tea pot. It's not quite a traditional tea pot. The IngenuiTEA pot. It's turning out pretty fun so far. I wonder how it'll hold up. My other two tea pots are made of ceramic and glass respectively. It's pretty neat to make just one mug of tea, which my other pots are too large for really. Mostly of the time it's easier to just brew in the cup. But oversteeping happens occasionally in all those cases but this new pot. The teas my family usually drinks, this is hardly ever a problem. The new teas I'm trying out, that can be a problem.

So I oversteeped Sleeping Dragon on my first infusion. Ooops?

I didn't set a timer, because hey, it's tea! Usually I'm a 'dip it and pull it out' tea bag person (usually at work), or a 'put it in and forget about it' type of person. The latter method almost always results in bitterness from oversteeping unless it's a later infusion, or one of those teas that work that way, like the Grandpa style teas.

First I rinsed the tea leaves (1 tsp) in cold water. Like I do with coffee. Apparently not everyone does this? I don't know. Then I rinsed the leaves in hot water. My dispenser is currently set for 195 degrees F. Then I put the leaves and hot water in the IngenuiTea pot and left it there. For how long? No idea, longer than the recommended three minutes certainly. Since I was actually looking forward to the notes in this tea, the astringency and bitterness that accompanied the first infusion was disappointing. I realize though this is my fault.

The second infusion went much much better. I set a timer on my phone and away it went. These notes are based on second infusion. I typically tend to like second infusions best anyway more in the multi-infusion teas. I haven't figured out quite why yet.

For me in general, usually the first infusion is too bold and the third infusion is just a hair weaker than the second, but enough to start to feel more like water than tea. Tea for me serves a purpose of taste and experience- it can be very enjoyable; water is just there- it's normal- I can expect it.

It's definitely a green tea, fresh and you can smell the brightness. The mouth feel was full and smooth, but still a little dry in the way that your mouth feels a little dry after awhile as certain teas will do. Dry as in the sense of you want to keep drinking, but not in the sense where you need water after a mouthful just to put the moisture back in your mouth. I can sense why others call it sweet, and it is sweet in the back of your throat type of feeling. Not the sharp sweetness of candy or soda, nor the soft sweetness of steamed cabbage. Overall it was quite a pleasant tea and I'm glad I got to enjoy it.

This tea I bought as a sample size with my Adagio Teas order, so I get to try it again, but I don't know yet if it's a tea that I'll buy a full size of. My experience with green teas is most with Asian supermarket teas, loose leaf or bagged. This tea didn't WOW me, it's not my favorite and doesn't even compete, but it IS good. I'm not sure I'll ever actually be in the mood for this type of tea. For me, this is an, OK, inoffensive tea that you can casually serve to guests, that you aren't close with but don't mind seeing. Not the good stuff you serve your parents and best friends, but probably just average. Maybe I'll like it more another day. A sample is enough for 3-5 tries, so I'll try it again. Maybe I'll like the first infusion better when I do it properly.

For now though, this tea was nice to have, but not memorable. Good thing I'm writing it all down then.

Good night.

Happy 4th of July!

I guess that's all there is to say. Happy Independence Day America!

Ninja Kitchen System 1100- first try!

When the blending attempt via the Cuisinart Mini-Prep failed, I started looking into blenders. While I do have a stick immersion blender, I've found in the last few years it just doesn't do the job I want it to for smoothies. Coincidentally, when I went home for spring break the new Costco coupon book showed that Euro-Pro had put out a $25 manufacturer's instant rebate on their Ninja Kitchen System. One of my friends has the Euro-Pro Ninja Master Prep system that was selling from Costco last year or the year before. Sometime in 2011, Costco pulled that item from its shelves and replaced it with the Kitchen System, the lastest Ninja innovation. I had badly wanted the Master Prep system, but my mother wouldn't let me have it. As of this date, the Master Prep system retails from Macy's and Amazon for about $60-70.

Since I was home for the week, I asked my mother to get me the Kitchen System. I was decided that if I was willing to shell out my own money for it anyway, I might as well ask my mother for it. She was skeptical, of course. The Kitchen System actually retails for $180 and sells on Amazon and Macy's for about $150. At Costco, with the instant rebate the cost would be about $95+tax. I already have the Cuisinart Mini-Prep, which has enough functionality as a food processor for cooking for one or two people. That having cost me ~$20 and an Oscar blender being around $30... just buying me the blender would be cheaper than getting me the Kitchen System and then returning the Cuisinart. Also since I'm in college and have VERY limited kitchen counter and Closet space, it might be more practical.

The Ninja Kitchen system's innovative call is its 1100 watt motor. That's a lot of power! It also features the new blade system that was featured in the Ninja Master Prep. I actually didn't know until I started researching the product that it was an "As Seen on TV" infomercial product. LOL. Of course the infomercials for the Master Prep and Kitchen System didn't show me anything I hadn't seen first hand in my friend's kitchen. The reviews on Amazon were more convincing for me than the infomercial, which I didn't have the patience to sit through. The Kitchen System, if you haven't figured it out by now, has functionality as a food processor and a blender, just like its predecessor, the Master Prep. It would replace my 4-cup Cuisinart Mini-Prep in its functionality with a larger bowl (5cups vs 4 cups). It also comes with a 72oz Blender cup (which is absolutely huge). Apparently it also has dough and whipping functionality(, which I also didn't know about really because I didn't watch the whole infomercial, but are nice bonuses. I don't know if I'll use those). It has a limited 1yr warranty (Cuisinart Mini-Prep featured 18-month limited warranty), and the bowls are made from BPA free plastic (same as the Cuisinart, but the Oster blender features a glass blending cup). I also like how even the smaller 'processing bowl' is capable of blending liquids with the sealed cap, unlike the Mini-Prep. That way I can make enough for only me and my apartment mate (5cups is still alot even then), and not have to use the really big blender cup. (The two cups also have different blades, the small 5-cup has four blades, and the big 72oz has a stunning 6 blades. The package also came with dough hooks, a dough base (for extra stability), a whipping blade, and a cookbook.) The one odd thing is that the design of the cups is square versus the traditional round bowl (Master Prep system featured round cups). I don't know if this will be a problem yet, but I've seen complaints about it on Amazon. This might become a problem if/when I use the processor for prep work. My mom uses her processor mostly for eggroll stuffing or other meaty stuffings. Mmmm Eggrolls. =D

So, after my nagging Mom for a bit and being an extra good girl while I was at home for the break, she gave in and let me have it. Yay! It's still in 'trial period' though, so if I don't like it in any way, she'll return it. She was also concerned that it might be too heavy if I use it seldomly. (Hopefully I'll want to use it alot though!) She also has a bigger food processor than the one she normally uses, that she tells me she doesn't like to use because it's so heavy and hard to drag out. We don't use the food processor enough at home to warrant it having it's own place on the countertop. So having got it yesterday (Sunday), I decided to try it out tonight in terms of its blending and ice crushing capabilities. The Cuisinart I had originally bought to make pumpkin pie with had sat in the closet for two months before I opened it to try out. That certainly speaks for how excited I am about this product. I currently don't actually have the counter space for it, so it's sitting on the kitchen table we never use because it's covered in fruit and magasines. But that's a good place for it I think, I'm going to leave it out for now. =D

Without further ado: Adventures in Blending #2

The first step I did, although it wasn't necessary but I wanted to do it, was make snow. This part I wanted to do because of the five minutes of the infomercial I did end up sitting through. Haha, it was fun actually.

About 10 cubes of ice. I don't know how the Jamba Juice smoothies always end up soo icy.

It works! Snow! Awesomeeee.

 Apparently I forgot to take a photo of the 'before'. This smoothie featured the above pictured snow, 1 large California Orange (I prefer the taste of CA orange over Florida oranges, so that's what I had in the kitchen), 20 baby carrots, 7 medium strawberries (a little sour because they've been in the fridge) and ~1cup Simply's lemonade.

Blended. ~20-30 seconds. Made 5 cups!

VERY well blended. The carrots in itty bitty pieces. Smoother than Jamba Juice.

The end result is a little tart, but I like it that way. Overall for a first try, I'm very happy. Next time I'll try yogurt or apples too, if I remember. I might even get around to finally making that pumpkin pie! The pumpkin took a freaky long time to ripen, but I think it's about ready.

This is my own opinion and I did all the research myself. We paid for this with our own money. I have no connection with the company Euro-pro. I think Costco is awesome though. =D

Experiments in blending

Just before the this semester started in January, I was at Costco and came upon a little 3-cup Food Processor that was on sale. I picked it up with thoughts about pumpkin pie and a flaky butter crust. Since then there has still been no use, it got stashed in the back of my closet until I could find time to break open that pumpkin (which has been taking a ridiculous amount of time to ripen).

I went on somewhat of a fruit buying spree this weekend. With 2lbs of organic strawberries for $5 at Safeway on Friday... and then 4lbs of strawberries for ~$8.5 at Costco.... then then grapes and blueberries besides, I decided to blend some of them to see how it would turn out. And with having gone to Jamba Juice twice in the last two weeks, it might actually save me some money.... maybe.

The original plan was, of course, to blend fresh fruits in the food processor. I started out with some fresh strawberries, and fresh blueberries... and then remembered that I had some frozen blueberries in the freezer from blueberry muffins last semester. I reserved half of the fresh blueberries to eat whole and added some greek yogurt and lemonade as a mixing medium. Also a spoonful of leftover vanilla ice cream as an afterthought.... and to get rid of the box.

Yes... the yogurt had blueberries in it too, but I didn't enjoy this
 particular yogurt on it's own.... what a way to get rid of ingredients!

Just look at those delicious strawberries!

What I learned: Food processors work better with dry foods. There are two functions on my processor (which is a Cusinart Mini), being CHOP and GRIND. I GRIND-ed my way until most, but not all of the chucks were gone. While it didn't come flying apart, there were definite leaks around the sides of the top and in the cap of the processor. Of course, that could also be that that would happen in blender cups too if the cup were not so tall, but the processor cup being some four-five inches tall, there was leakage. The result tasted great at least.... the half that I had left after being a klutz and knocking the cup over and spilling half of it all over the countertop. It was noticeably chunky though, as in there were small chunks of fruit, the size of which were maybe 1-2mm^2. Small enough to fit through the straw... big enough for definite texture.

Experiment 1. You can see the ice cream refused to incorporate....
and the small signs of leakage

Experiment 2 was all frozen berries: frozen strawberries I found in the back of the freezer, frozen blueberries, then of course, yogurt and lemonade. There was less leakage in this experiment.... I had put in less mixing medium.... the result of which was slush that was frozen solid because I left it for a bit while I cleaned up everything else. After decanting it into a tall cup though, I blended it throughly with a stick blender and that got the bits smaller. it's still slush, so I won't be drinking it for awhile, but it's much less chunky than the first experiment. The reason I couldn't use the stick blender in the first place was because when using that kind of blender in a cup, and approaching from the top, there needs to be much more mixing medium.... getting it to slush first in the processor helped eliminate the need. 

Will I do it again? Probably not.... but it was fun. And yummy.

February InkDrop

I caved this month and got February's InkDrop after seeing the reveal. I had been wanting to try Black Swan in Australian Roses and Purple Heart from Noodler's but I haven't put in an order in a few months.... and just ordering samples doesn't warrant the shipping. Two of my pens were coincidentally empty at the beginning of the month so I've had Chocolat in my Lamy w/ XF nib, and Purple Heart in my Kaweco w/ F nib since last Friday.

So far, I'm really loving Purple Heart and if I didn't already own a full bottle of Noodler's African Violet, I'd be jumping all over a new ink bottle. I'm also really liking Chocolat, which has a VERY red base, but I feel bad because I still haven't written enough my other brown ink to say that I like this one more. I'm always wanting to write in brown or purple, but ahh!! Soo many ink choices and not enough pens.


In other news, I was hanging out with some friends his past weekend and we came across two little road blocks on a busy street...

Road Blocks

They don't move, you move around them

That's right... step over the leash. My buddy has the rest of the sidewalk covered.

We also encountered Mr. Bones in a Kiehl's window. How he got there from the Anatomy Lab, we'll never know. Maybe it's a distant cousin of some sort. The Mr. Bones in the Anatomy Lab has an aversion to clothes, lab coats included.

Mr. Bones

Happy New Year~

I'll scan it properly when I'm back at school. But for new, a little message to you all. Thank you to everyone for their support, and Happy New Year!

Finals!

Finals week officially starts Saturday (language finals are on saturday) and everyone is already going nuts. I know I'm definitely feeling the heat. Upcoming for me is a skit presentation in-class on Friday for French, Final on Saturday morning for French. Finals for Philosophy of Mind, and Philosophy of Science on Tuesday, and 10 page paper for Philosophy of Religion due on Thursday! It's going to be a while ride!

I've had some time to play with some drink mixes in combination with my sparkling (sparkle-y? :D) water. Here's two I made up for tonight's study session. They're also my sustenance for the night until I can get home and get some dinner.

In the black bottle is sparkle-y water with some Gatorade(TM) powder mixed in. See how low the line is? That's what results when you add flavor powder to the drink TOO FAST. It fizzes. It fizzed out of the bottle and onto the kitchen counter and some into the sink when I got it there. It was alarming, but made me laugh at myself. The water fill-line is between where the levels for the pink and black bottles are.

In the pink bottle is simply some vanilla syrup and some crushed grapes. You can see the red seedless grapes in the quart-sized water bottle that I brought for a snack. I crushed about 5 of them and then poured the exposed fruit and juice into the bottle. I didn't crush it very well. Here's a picture of the grapes as they float down from being shaken up for effect. You can bet that I'm not going to touch that bottle again for awhile, to wait for bubbles and all. :)

Good luck to all my fellow students that are suffering finals! You shouldn't be reading this because you should be studying! But I'm a hypocrite because I probably shouldn't be blogging during finals week either.